Monday, June 18 - Buckle Your Chin Straps

It's another hot, blustery day. The wind is strong enough that the deck furniture is getting blown over. The Amish are working without their hats on again today. You know, we bought this lot because of the SE exposure thinking that we would be out of the wind much of the time throughout the course of a year. I was wrong. Seems like the prevailing winds so far this spring/summer have been directly out of the south. It blows right across the south bay at our house. Whatever happened to winds out of the west?

Here is where the house started this morning.

Already there's been one delivery of rock and Lockridge is now unloading all the treated lumber for the rear deck. The Amish will be responsible to set the deck's posts and joists in place before the roof goes on.

And now we have a bit of a traffic jam. While the Lockridge driver was unloading the concrete boys showed up again to start on the front porch footings. Two more trucks and a trailer with a skid loader. They'll be getting ready for pouring and stamping of the concrete floor for the porch in the next 2 days. The Lockridge driver waited impatiently for the concrete team to unload their skid loader and then tried to back around them on our narrow road. A few nasty words were uttered. It will get worse tomorrow when Paul De Jong shows up to start digging the hole for the septic system. Three contractors working at the same time. Maybe I'll need to put on a black & white striped shirt and a whistle.

Meanwhile, the Amish are nailing sheathing around the exterior of the house. They have also finished the walls for the hallway from the garage past Brenda's "Do Room" (aka laundry and knitting room) to the kitchen. These guys can walk on top of 2x4 walls with ease. Carrying a nail gun and a piece of lumber. I've also seen them standing on the very top step of their ladders. Not something that OSHA would approve of. On my visit to the site at lunch time I found  a wall framed up where there was to be no wall. After a couple of conversations and a phone call, the wall is coming down. Amazing what the overhead floor plan shows versus what you really wanted. Score another one for Frank. The wind has started gusting harder than ever now at 1:20. It's got to be gusting well over 30-40 mph right now.

This is the wall that is coming down.

This wall would fully block the view from the front entry across the great room towards the lake. What was anyone thinking?

By the end of the day....

The front porch is ready for concrete tomorrow. We'll use the same color and stamping as the rear patio.

 Progress was made on the landing and stairwell to the lower level.

The ridiculous wall blocking the great room from the front entry was removed.

This will be the kitchen area to the left as you enter the front door.

Brenda will have a big "Do Room".

We've got some decent steps to the garage.

And a lot of exterior sheathing was added.

Tomorrow:

1) Front entry concrete is poured and stamped.

2) Amish begin building the deck and continue sheathing the exterior.

3) The septic system digging is started.

4) Roof trusses should be delivered.

Stay tuned!